An Olympic luger from the Republic of Georgia died after an accident during a training run today. As the AP reports: "Nodar Kumaritashvili lost control of his sled near the finish Friday, went over the track wall and struck an unpadded steel pole near the finish line at Whistler Sliding Center."

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” said Shiva Keshavan, a four-time Olympian from India. It seems the luge track at the Vancouver Olympics is fucked up or more dangerous than usual, because an Italian luger wrecked earlier today, a Romanian woman was knocked briefly unconscious in a different accident, and four Americans have also had trouble making it down the track during training. Yeah, eek, not off to a good start... and the opening ceremony hasn't even happened yet (it starts at 6PM PST).